For Christs Love Compels Us
A Sermon on John 1:16
Originally preached March 22, 1964
Scripture
16And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.
Sermon Description
The Christian must consider how they feel about sin and about Jesus Christ. They must ask if their sin disgusts them to where they are driven to confession and repentance, and if they are drawn to love God, His Word, and people more and more? In this sermon on John 1:16 titled “For Christ’s Love Compels Us,” Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones delves into the joyous details surrounding the love of the Savior and how His love affects lives and desires. Paramount to understanding how the love of Christ affects is understanding the doctrine of union with Christ. This doctrine explains that those who have repented and believed in Christ are also united with Him. This not only means that the Christian is united to a righteousness like Christ’s through sanctification and justification, but also that they have been united to a death like Christ’s, namely, that they have died to sin. From this point Dr. Lloyd-Jones shows how the follower of Christ is not merely credited with Christ’s goodness, but also given a new heart and new desires to put off sin and put on righteousness.
Sermon Breakdown
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The sermon focuses on 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 which states "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again."
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The sermon begins by explaining that the Christian life is about receiving the fullness of Christ. Everything in the Christian life derives from Christ and our relationship to him.
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The sermon then focuses on how Christ's death promotes our sanctification. Sanctification is the process of being made holy and conforming to the image of Christ.
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Christ died for us and in our place to reconcile us to God. Christ took our guilt and punishment upon himself so we could be forgiven.
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However, we must go beyond just believing Christ died for us. We must realize we died with Christ. When Christ died, we died with him. We are no longer in Adam but have died to that old way of living. We are new creations in Christ.
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Christ died not just so we could be forgiven but so we would no longer live for ourselves. He died so we would live for him. The purpose of Christ's death was to redeem us from all iniquity and make us zealous for good works.
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The love of Christ constrains us. It pressures us and leaves us no choice but to live for Christ. The love of Christ constrains us as we think about why Christ died and what he accomplished.
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We must ask ourselves why Christ shed his precious blood. The answer is so we would no longer live vain, selfish lives inherited from our culture and upbringing. He died to make us holy as God is holy.
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The love of Christ should constrain our thinking, reasoning, judging, and philosophy of life. It should control all we do. We must give Christ our whole selves, not just parts.
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We must meditate on Christ's death so we can say the love of Christ compels us to live for him. Christ demands our all.
Sermon Q&A
What is the Main Message of Lloyd-Jones' Palm Sunday Sermon on the Cross?
Lloyd-Jones' Palm Sunday sermon emphasizes that Christ's death promotes our sanctification, not just our forgiveness. The central message is that Christ died not merely to forgive our sins but to transform us completely so we no longer live for ourselves but for Him.
What does "of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace" mean according to Lloyd-Jones?
According to Lloyd-Jones, this phrase from John 1:16 summarizes the gospel by highlighting that everything in the Christian life derives from Christ and our relationship with Him. It means Christians receive from Christ's fullness and experience "grace upon grace" or "grace added to grace" - a continuous supply of grace that transforms us through the process of sanctification.
How does Lloyd-Jones define sanctification in this sermon?
Lloyd-Jones defines sanctification as "the process whereby we are being renewed in the inner man after the image and the pattern of the Lord Jesus Christ delivered from sin and evil and made more and more conformable unto him." He describes it as a work of the Holy Spirit mediating and applying Christ's fullness to believers, changing them from the inside out.
According to Lloyd-Jones, what is the relationship between Christ's death and our sanctification?
Lloyd-Jones teaches that Christ's death is perhaps the most powerful factor in our sanctification. He explains that when Christ died for us, we died with Him - meaning our old self died and we became new creations. This union with Christ in His death breaks the power of our old nature and enables us to live a new life that is no longer self-centered but Christ-centered.
What does Lloyd-Jones mean when he says "the all died with Him"?
Lloyd-Jones explains that "the all died with Him" means believers have died with Christ - not just that Christ died for them. This mystical union with Christ means Christians are no longer "in Adam" but "in Christ." The old self-centered person has died, and the believer is now a new creation who approaches life, sin, and others differently. This death with Christ is the foundation of sanctification.
How does the love of Christ "constrain" believers according to Lloyd-Jones?
The love of Christ "constrains" believers not through mere sentimentality but through intellectual conviction. Lloyd-Jones explains that Christ's love presses upon our minds, causing us to reason and judge that since He died for us, we ought to live for Him. This love creates a pressure that moves us toward holiness and away from self-centered living. It's not just emotional but engages our whole being - especially our minds - in response to Christ's sacrifice.
What does Lloyd-Jones identify as the common mistake Christians make regarding Christ's death?
Lloyd-Jones identifies the mistake of seeing Christ's death only in terms of forgiveness while continuing to live unchanged lives. Many Christians, he says, merely see the cross as providing forgiveness when they sin, leading to a cycle of "sinning and asking for forgiveness" without transformation. This misunderstands the purpose of Christ's death, which was to deliver us from our old self-centered way of life and create a new nature within us.
How does becoming a Christian change how we view others according to this sermon?
According to Lloyd-Jones, becoming a Christian fundamentally changes how we view others. Before conversion, we evaluate others based on what they mean to us or how they can serve our interests ("after the flesh"). After conversion, we see others as souls for whom Christ died. The apostle Paul, for example, went from despising Gentiles as a Pharisee to becoming their apostle - seeing them as equal recipients of God's grace rather than judging by ethnic distinctions.
The Book of John
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (1899-1981) was a Welsh evangelical minister who preached and taught in the Reformed tradition. His principal ministry was at Westminster Chapel, in central London, from 1939-1968, where he delivered multi-year expositions on books of the bible such as Romans, Ephesians and the Gospel of John. In addition to the MLJ Trust’s collection of 1,600 of these sermons in audio format, most of these great sermon series are available in book form (including a 14 volume collection of the Romans sermons), as are other series such as "Spiritual Depression", "Studies in the Sermon on the Mount" and "Great Biblical Doctrines". He is considered by many evangelical leaders today to be an authority on biblical truth and the sufficiency of Scripture.